


rolling sea

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-08
Updated: 2012-10-08
Packaged: 2017-11-15 20:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fairies stole the sopor, Gamzee claims.</p>
            </blockquote>





	rolling sea

The sky is turning a soft shade of orange while you watch. Glittering stars gradually blink and dim, hidden from sight until night comes again. The waves gently lap up against the side of the worn-down boat, creating a rhythm of one, two, three, splash.

You’d go inside if you could bring your feet to move. You curl your toes inward. The sea here is calm, much calmer than the seas you had travelled since you went on the run in this same boat. You see no dangerous aquatic beats hungering for your rich mutant blood, nor any psychotic seatrolls craving violence against landdwellers. Any other troll would regard this as a blessing, but you know better. Nothing ever goes well for you.

“Hey, best friend.”

The voice is thick and syrupy with sleep. A hand gently touches your shoulder.

You turn and try to glare at your partner, your moirail, your only company for the past few sweeps. Your heart isn’t into it and you end up giving him a pathetic look instead.

Gamzee laughs, his raspy, honking laugh as disgusting and as comforting as the first time you heard it. “Let’s get our motherfucking sleep on. Don’t want the sun to burn your eyes out like our teal sister.”

A pang in your chest aches when you think of your life on land. “Maybe I’m sick of looking at your ugly face,” you mummer into your curled up arms.

Gamzee smiles, his sweet, knowing smile, and he picks you up in his long arms and cradles you like a broken-winged tweetbeast. Perigees of this routine has made your protests dull and half-hearted, so you let him carry you to the recuperacoon that you two share.

You scramble out of his arms, still too stubborn to let him put you to bed, and stare inside. “Gamzee,” you say, closing your eyes and sighing, “Why is half the sopor slime gone?”

“Fairies.” He answers with all seriousness. You look at him. “Motherfucking fairies, not the sweet ones like Tavbro liked. Nasty motherfuckers. Got a taste for my pies, they keep demanding more. Keep trying to make me give ‘em more.” He holds out a hand to you. Warily, you take it, unsure of what he wants you to do. With his other hand he guides you to the tip of one of his fingers, where a perfect ring of small indigo cuts stands out against his grey skin.

You fold his fingers back, ignoring the queasiness in your stomach.

“Stop making shit up and trying to scare me.”

Gamzee looks at you, his head tilted. He smiles. “I promise I won’t bother my best bro about it anymore.”

You sigh, huff, good, he should know better than to make up dumb wriggler stories. You’ve been on the run since the Alternian fleet found out about your blood color, you can’t take any more undue stress.

You don’t sleep that day. You’re too busy imaging the sound of the Condesce’s voice. It sounds suspiciously like the sound of fluttering wings.

* * *

 

The sea gives you the creeps.

Vicious seatrolls and deep-dwelling Horrorterrors you can deal with. Hell, you’d give your left arm and eye for a seatroll to attack right now, just so you could have something to let your aggression out on. Instead the sea is calm and quiet. You and Gamzee haven’t even caught any fish recently and are living off the salted reserves you’re glad you insisted on keeping.

You keep thinking you see things out of the corner of your eyes. You keep thinking the stars have changed since you last stared at them, that the ocean is whispering to you. Things keep going missing in the ship and Gamzee refuses to tell you where they went. You’re sure you know what he would tell you.

You stare at the water. It mocks you, laughs at you, tried to lull you into feeling safe with its gentle rocking. You can’t take it anymore. You bend over the rail and start to gag. You have been too nervous to eat anything in two days so the only thing that comes up is bile that burns your throat. Gamzee comes up behind you and rubs your back, brushing your hair out of your face.

His voice is quiet and you almost miss what he says you to. “Don’t worry, best friend. I’ll take care of it.”

* * *

 

The next night you wake up alone.

You’re stiff when you try to move, and it takes several minutes for you to get out of therecuperacoon. You slide down the side and hit the ground with a thud. Your mind is so foggy it takes you several minutes to realize that you weren’t sleeping in slime. You swear there was some left when you crawled in that morning, too much for Gamzee to eat in a short period of time.

Your pulse races with fear. “Gamzee?” you croak, throat dry. You stumble over to the sink and drink some of the last fresh water left. “Gamzee?” you call again, this time louder.

No answer.

The boat is still and you don’t even hear the waves.

You stumble out of the livingblock, full-blown panic running through your veins. You call his name one, two, three more times, each louder and more desperate than the last.

The boat isn’t very big. It doesn’t take you long to search it. You end up in the captain’s room, curled in on yourself and unable to breathe.

Static erupts from all sides, and at first you think it’s your head finally snapping. The sound of a voice slowly rises above the static, and you find it within you to shout back. Who is this? How did you find us?

“—kat?”

You shout some more. Leave me alone, you cry. I’m alone, I’ve always been alone, I’ll die alone. You’re screaming, crying, you can’t even tell if you just hallucinated Gamzee’s presence ever being on this boat. You can’t tell if he had died all those sweeps ago, trying to protect you, trying to save you.

“Shh, shh,” the voice over the intercom says. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

You choke on your voice. “…Gamzee?”

“Shit, yeah, that’s me.”

You stand up, legs quaking, and only remain standing by grabbing onto the command panel for dear life. You try to laugh, but it’s strangled and dies in your throat. “Where are you?”

“Crossed over.”

“Crossed over where?”

He honks. “With the fairies.”

“Of all the stupid, bulge-munching things you have said since you crawled out of the caverns—” You rub your face, trying to keep your eyes dry. “Where the fuck are you? Don’t you spew some bullshit about fairies this time, I mean it.”

“Well, fuck, I’m not even sure if they are really fairies or what. Motherfuckers won’t let me get a good look at ‘em. They’re all sparkly.”

Pale red drips down your cheeks onto the control panel. You inhale, exhale, inhale, each breath more ragged than the last. “Gamzee—I mean it—where are you?”

“Look outside.” The static returns and his voice is fading. You look through the windows; part of the ocean is shimmering, almost as if it’s dancing.

“You’re in there?”

When Gamzee speaks again, his voice is gentle and soothing. You feel your breathing steady and your head clears. “If you go through there, then we’ll b—eee together.” Unfortunately, the intercom seems to be breaking down. If you look closely, the sparkling water seems to be dimming.

You rub at your eyes with your fist and childishly wipe your nose on your sleeve. You must spend so long staring that it worries Gamzee, because he sounds almost panicked. “If you don’t go—go—go now, then you might—” Static. “Never see me again.”

You breathe, letting air fill your lungs. You straighten your back and put on your bravest face. “Okay.”

“See you soon, best friend.”

The intercom dies. The shining portal begins to fade. With one last reserve of strength you launch yourself over the side of the boat and into it.

The ocean suddenly picks up. Sudden waves make the boat topple over. When it’s discovered perigees later, no one is quite sure if it was ever occupied at all.

You feel warm.

**Author's Note:**

> written a couple months ago for BR1 of HSO 2012! the prompt was gamzeekarkat, sea story and paranormal fiction.
> 
> this is the first thing i've written in years, and then first thing i'll be uploaded to ao3. here's to hoping this is a good run.


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